ARTICLES ABOUT CONSTITUENCY BY DATE - PAGE 2

It is not surprising that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has enthusiastically espoused the current craze of taking selfies — the modern practice that puts leaders and the led in the same frame quite literally. While it does not always make for the most aesthetic imagery — as senior members of his peer group Barack Obama , David Cameron and Helle Thorning-Schmidt who indulged in a selfie at Nelson Mandela's memorial service realised — they can be used to mutual advantage too. Catching his Chinese counterpart Li Keqiang in a grinning off-guard moment should rank as Modi's best selfie yet. That he does the same at impromptu meetings with local audiences imbues the selfie with a becoming egalitarianism that other politicians and statesmen will soon recognise as an effective constituency-building tool.

NEW DELHI: Sparking a political fight, HRD minister & senior BJP leader Smriti Irani on Tuesday visited Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi's constituency Amethi. Irani, who met farmers in Amethi, said, "The less said about him (Rahul Gandhi) the better, he could have brought in benefits (for people of Amethi) long ago when he was in power. " Asked about Rahul's announcement of visiting Amethi, Irani mocked, "Rahul Gandhi's visit announcement of came after mine, so who is copying whom?

AMETHI: Union Minister Smriti Irani will visit Rahul Gandhi's constituency Amethi on May 12 to meet farmers affected by untimely rains, but an irked Congress has said it will oppose it over the cancellation of food park project. Just days after Irani, who had unsuccessfully contested against Rahul in Lok Sabha elections, attacked the Congress vice-president accusing him of ignoring his constituency for the last 10 years, BJP today announced that she will address 'Kisan Panchayats' in all blocks in the pocket-borough of the Nehru-Gandhi family.

NEW DELHI: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi will be visiting his parliamentary constituency Amethi on May 18 and 19 to meet farmers affected by untimely rains. "After Kisan Padyatra in Telangana on May 14/15, Rahul Gandhi will be visiting Amethi on May 18 & 19, to interact with farmers & INC workers", the Congress said on its Twitter handle. Gandhi will have a busy schedule on May 18 and 19, who will meet people from all walks of life including farmers who have recently lost their crops by untimely hailstorms and hailstones, Chandra Kant Dubey , the representative of Gandhi in Amethi, said.

BENGALURU: Exultant over his son-in-law Rishi Sunak's victory in UK general elections, IT czar and Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy today expressed confidence in his ability to perform well as an MP while noting that he has "big shoes" to fill. "I am very happy that Rishi has won convincingly in Richmond - Yorks with such a majority. He and Akshata worked very hard, beat the pavement and communicated his merit, integrity and his vision for his constituency," Murthy said in a statement.

CHENNAI: Continuing its attack on the Centre over farmers' issues, NDA constituent PMK today asked how it could be a farmer's welfare government when the rise in interest rate of farm loans was more than the increase in procurement price of crops. "How can the central government, which increased procurement prices only by 3 per cent but increased the interest rate for crop loans by 11 per cent, be a farmer's welfare government," party founder S Ramadoss said in a statement here.

MUMBAI: Former Maharashtra chief minister Narayan Rane was trailing by 3,733 votes to his Shiv Sena rival in the Bandra East Assembly bypoll after the second round of counting. Shiv Sena's Trupti Sawant secured 8,752 votes, whereas Rane polled 5,019 votes. Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen's (MIM) Rehbar Khan was a distant third with 761 votes. In Tasgaon-Kavathe Mahankal constituency in Sangli district, NCP nominee and late R R Patil's widow Suman Patil had established a comfortable lead of 26,071 votes over her immediate rival, BJP rebel and independent candidate Swapnil Patil after the fourth round.

DHARAMSHALA: Dharamsala would soon become the first Assembly Constituency in the country to be brought under 24/7 CCTV camera surveillance, Urban Development minister of Himachal Pradesh Sudhir Sharma said. Work on the project will start in May and will be completed within six months. The entire project will cost few crore rupees, Sharma said. "This project will help police keep an eye on almost every road of the constituency from their control room and guide the nearest mobile police unit to the incident site quickly," he said.

KANPUR: Ahead of Murli Manohar Joshi's proposed visit to his constituency on April 18, several posters have emerged in the outskirts of the city declaring that the BJP MP has gone 'missing'. The posters, which also promise a reward on finding him, have been termed as "sponsored" by the Kanpur BJP unit. Describing the poster to be a ploy of rival parties, BJP's city unit chief Surendra Maithani said an FIR would be filed against the person who pasted the posters once his identity gets revealed.

HARIDWAR: Thirty six polling booths have been identified as extremely sensitive and 21 as sensitive in Bhagwanpur assembly constituency of the district where a bypoll is scheduled on April 11. Haridwar SSP Sweety Aggarwal said apart from local police personnel, Central para-military forces are being deployed at each sensitive and extremely sensitive booth of the constituency which falls under the district. Besides, six mobile parties have also been constituted by the police whereas one sub-inspector, 4 constables and one section of Provindial Armed Constabulary have been deployed at every inter-state barrier, she said.